

THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 307 



evidently male and female, having in broad daylight the same sort 

 of turn-up I had witnessed a fortnight ago, when they were located 

 on the other side. They tumbled over each other, lost sight of 

 each other, and then had what we call in Devon ' a real scat ' at 

 one another. Suddenly one landed and looked out for the other, 

 then up he came again, and both flew into the pond locked 

 together. Now I must say all this appeared to me to be a friendly 

 business. I watched them till a quarter to eight, and latterly they 

 worked independently, returning to the drain every now and then, 

 but I saw no fish in their mouths. 



I shall be able to see in a few days whether they are not, as I 

 strongly suspect, a brace of otters that have no communication 

 with the party opposite ; but, if one happens to be the old bitch- 

 otter I first saw with her family, all I can say is we shall yet 

 witness some pretty sights when she brings out her young and 

 teaches them to fish for themselves. 



On that river Erme with the first freshet in June the white- 

 fish or truff came up in large shoals, to rest for some time in deep 

 pools at the highest point touched by the tidal wave. One of 

 these pools is designated par excellence the otter pool, for as 

 surely as the truff appear, so surely do the strong hovers hold 

 an otter, nay, sometimes a brace or more, in attendance on the 

 prey so bountifully supplied to them. The arrival of the truff, a 

 fish identical with the sewin, was in former days made the happy 

 signal for the first meet at Sequer's Bridge, which meant the otter 

 pool; and great was the sport usually shown on such occasions by 

 Mr. BulteePs or Mr. Trelawny's hounds ; especially when Waterloo, 

 Wanderer, and Whirligig were the stars of the pack. Then, as 

 the ladies formed no small portion of the hunting field, the day 

 was not unfrequently wound up with an impromptu feast and 

 a dance afterwards on the old oak boards of the Flete hall. 

 Nor should it be forgotten that on one remarkable occasion a 

 lady devoted to the chase left a goodly portion of her white 

 petticoat on the snags of an old willow, but nevertheless, un- 

 daunted by the loss, stepped out in her ' cutty sark ' with great 

 effect in the ballet that followed the play; and, as a song written 

 at the time relates : 



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